This year's Nobel Prize for medicine goes to the three US researchers who discovered how the body protects the chromosomes housing vital genetic code. Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak jointly share the award. Elizabeth Blackburn, of the University of California, San Francisco, and Jack Szostak, of Harvard Medical School, discovered that a unique DNA sequence in the telomeres protects the chromosomes from degradation. Their research has led others to hunt for new ways to cure cancer.<br/><br/>